Margrit Schenker

Accordion

AccordionExpression, joy of playing, color, life.

The accordion has been part of my life since 1988. One day I went to Musik Hug, a store for musical instruments in Zurich, and rented one of these small, red squeeze boxes. Having no idea what it would lead to, I experienced an enormous feeling of freedom while playing with the sounds that this instrument produced.
A feeling of delight came over me in all sorts of places, in open fields and in forests, on Zurich’s Lindenhof, at the Baldern castle on Zurich’s Felsenegg, with these petite, impudent, pointy sounds!
Working together with dancers from the alternative art scene gave me a special joy and showed me the way to a new approach to music.

The lessons in improvisation with Irene Schweizer brought me into a wholly new musical world. I started to feel the music physically, radically, and completely unlike everything I had till then encountered in my musical life.

The year that I spent at the Pauline Oliveros Foundation in Kingston, NY was decisive. The interaction with Pauline Oliveros, composer, accordionist, philosopher, provided me with crucial catalysts for my work. The practice of Deep Listening, a form of musical meditation, was especially befitting for me.

American artists, musicians, poets, both male and female, provided me with inspiration. I can never forget the encounters with performance artists such as Linda Montano, or the artist couple David and Gisela Gamper, and also with the dancer Julie Lyon and the percussionist Jason Finkelman.
Just walking around in Manhattan was in itself a musical experience! Nor can I forget the day I asked women in front of the UN headquarters how to say “Hello” in their native language. I collected 22 languages in one afternoon!
The Duo Krak, where I work together with the Zurich clarinetist Valentin Vecellio, is the European version of the American experiment.